News Blog

Alton Teen Sentenced to Six Years for Torturing, Killing Pregnant Woman

​LeShelle McBride, 18, was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison for her part in the January 2008 torture death of Dorothy Dixon, 29. Five others were also sentenced in the murder, including McBride's mother and 12-year-old brother.

Dixon was a developmentally disabled woman pregnant with her second child and living in an Alton house with several others when she was killed. She was found in the basement of the home, where she had been banished, and had been beaten with a plunger handle, shot with a BB gun, and sustained burns from hot glue guns and boiling water. Dixon's infant son, a year old, weighed only 15 pounds when Dixon was found dead in the basement and Child Services took the baby into custody. During Dixon's autopsy, her second child was delivered stillborn.

McBride's mother, Michelle Riley, also lived in the home, and was sentenced to 45 years in prison as part of her plea bargain after pleading guilty to the first-degree murder of her daughter in February.McBride's brother, 12, was tried as a juvenile and is on probation.

McBride received the shortest punishment, and her lawyer's say the teen's part in the crime is the "least culpable." She has also reportedly been mentoring and tutoring other teens in county jail.

All told, five have been charged with first-degree murder and the intentional homicide of an unborn child. Not all have been sentenced yet.